if you stop the moisture, (fix roof leak, or get the place ventilated) it stops growing and dries to a powder in about 3 months. I suspect that if the environment becomes moistagain it would reactivate? Bleach does remove it. Always use gloves, disposable long sleeve clothing, and a respirator.

after you wash with bleach solution let the area dry completely and then you should paint the area with a kitchen/bath paint that has a mildew resistant sheen to it. you shouldn't have any more issues if you are a clean person

It will come back if there is any moisture, and yes, you can take the spores with you. My family went through a living hell when we happened to rent a home in a very nice neighborhood that had an unknown mold problem. Apparently, they (owners) knew of the problem under the house, and had cleaned it with bleach etc. in the past. I assume they thought it was fixed, but a leak in the tub reactivated the mold and next thing I knew it was all over the walls, and into the duct system. We had a haze in the air like we were smokers, but no one smoked. Kids started getting sick, pale, exhaustion, blisters on tongue, respiratory issues and on and on. I am not sure if related, but I ended up with a thyroid tumor. This was a process over two to three years cumulating in the hazy air. We ended up taking an emergency exit to a hotel, when we walked in after being gone for a weekend, and everyone immediately became ill and lips started swelling up. The house was checked by everyone I could call out and it ended up being black mold. I had a horrible legal fight with the owner and ended up in court, which I won, but who cares, the damage was already done. The issues from the black mold were used against me in other ways by my ex, but that is another story. Let's just say that it has been seven years since all this happened, and my family is still not over the emotional toll it took, and I may never personally get over it totally.

Black mold is nothing to take lightly. It can and will destroy you and your family.

after you wash with bleach solution let the area dry completely and then you should paint the area with a kitchen/bath paint that has a mildew resistant sheen to it. you shouldn't have any more issues if you are a clean person

Quoting: Anonymous Coward 15636501

I think you are thinking of mildew, not true black mold. I am OCD with cleaning and it was under the house in the crawl space, and got into the home through the duct system. It has NOTHING TO DO WITH BEING CLEAN.

Lived in mold filled 100+ yr old guest house. For almost 2 years. Repeated illnesses almost immediate after moving in. Dr's couldn't figure out. After landlord wanted to increase rent- I complained of mold in bathroom. Landlord had bathroom ripped open exposing me to probably over 70 types of mold - without giving me place to go while work being done. Immigrant labor split after telling them they needed masks. Leaving all these microscopic mold spores flying around got super sick both physically and mentally. Went through hell recovering for 2 years. For house/apt and belongings- if you don't wish to throw practically everything away. (Except clothes because they can be washed) Rent Ozone generator for a weekend and take you and your pets away for weekend. Also remove plants. Started to figure out I had severe mold poisoning just before landlord ripped open bathroom. After bthrm opened I started acting very erratic. Basically went temporarily insane. Bounced rent check accidentally and verbal argument with landlord. He lied and I ended up being thrown intoUCLA psych ward. The drs there refused to believe me nor test me for mold poisoning when I stated repeatedly that's what was wrong. The drs there almost killed me with their heavy psych meds (gave me medication contra indicated for a person with high blood sugar count) I refused medication and was then threatened with lobotomy by one of the nurses. After getting out of UCLA went to environmental specialist dr who was expert on mold. Spent 2 k to get list of vitamins and mineral supplements and since had no insurance did not go thru 5k worth of neurological and physical health screening. MRI's full body cancer scans etc. My biggest regret not suing my landlord and UCLA as 1st dr suggested. Couldn't find lawyer only one i could find had too many cases. Moved to Arizona continued treatment with NDMD who is environmental specialist- he too recommended same exact list of vitamins and mineral supplements. About $200 a month. Took me about 2 years to recover. Detoxing from this can at times feel worse than being sick while in mold environment. Expect depression while detoxing. Had thyroid problems while detoxing. Vision problems, severe memory problems. The list is long as to what illnesses you can get from mold . The most severe are cancer and Lou Gherigs (sp?) disease. You can find lists from mold drs online. Both drs recommended same long list to recover. There is no prescription medication that one can take. Also must stay away from sugars, starches, dried fruit and mushrooms ( except Reishi mushroom - which has drying affect and found helpful in recovery) Ten years later I'm practically an expert after all the research I've done to help myself and others. Memory functions only came back maybe 85-90%. Visual problems persisted for several months, severe depression at least 6 mos while detoxing. For depression did Rhodiola worked best for me. After trying SAMe and 5htp. I just moved so I don't have recovery list available at moment. But will again soon. Forget about regular md's and to quote my 1st specialist "UCLA doesn't know jack shit about mold" see an environmental illness specialist. I highly recommend SCNM in Tempe/ Phoenix area for NDMD treatment. So much more to say but first get out of environment ! ASAP before it kills you. I'll try to check back here when I can. I've enjoyed numerous articles here over last year. Thx

It grows on the walls in my little apartment because there isn't proper insulation and the moisture condenses on the cold walls. Plus it is probably coming from behind through the walls, 100 year old building in the Pacific Northwest.

Last year my landlords gave me a dehumidifier and I run that in the closet along with a fan. Hoping that since I started earlier this year with that it will help a lot. I lost some stuff that was stored in boxes in there to mildew different times over the years.

Spraying the walls with straight bleach kills it pretty good though.

Before I got a cat I was diffusing a lot of essential oils in here, I think that helped, but that's bad for cats so I don't do it anymore.

Quoting: Vision Thing

The INSIDE of your walls are BLACK...behind the drywall!

MOVE! You can't just cover up the unpleasnt odor with air fresheners...the odor is telling your brain to GET AWAY!

LISTEN!

Quoting: Anonymous Coward 1169258

Yes, move ASAP. Tell your landlord you're moving, stop paying rent, tell the judge about the mold if they try and evict, tell the judge you're not paying rent because you suspect the landlord wouldn't return your security deposit, since they obviously don't care about you with all that mold.

Or if your landlord threatens to sue, tell your landlord you'll report him to county health, who'd at least ask for expensive mold remediation, perhaps even condemning the structure in the process.

Vesper 33 yes your thyroid tumor most definetly can be from mold. I can relate ten years later. Had low thyroid problems for several months during detox/ recovery.

Quoting: divinegoddess 11687670

Thank you for your post. I always suspected it did, and my life has never been the same. I mean I am a different person in mind, body, and overall health because of what we went through. One good thing that has come out of the mold hell is that my oldest son, who had become very ill at the time too, eventually went to law school, and is now a lawyer. Guess what he is specializing in? Lol. Yep, mold cases, and he knows from experience what it can do to people, no one has to try and convince him what is happening to them, he understands. :)

I spent a lot of time researching ozone (O3) generators, and this one appears to be the best value by far, very high output, and it seems to be the most advanced engineered, most reliable.

WARNING: You have to know how to use these ozone generators. You can't breathe the air when you're using this, you have to leave the area right away, open windows and stuff, run a fan. Breathing large concentrations of O3 is unhealthy. And this generator here is extremely powerful.

Mold is a neurotoxin ! It's probably used in biological warfare! It's deadly. Chinese have known about it for centuries. They used it to poison people. The Salem Witch trials the main theory is that the whole town probably ate bread infected with mold spores. A whole village in the 1950's in France got ill from it. My story probably similar to some of you who have posted100plus yr old house - if your living in one like I did check for lead paint as well. People are not joking when they say burn the house down to the ground. Ozone generate the belongings you wish to keep after you leave!!!It's the only way to thoroughly get rid of spores that will go with your belongings when you leave! Didn't know about teflex? My solace since I was unable to sue my landlord and UCLA hospital is that my overcharging landlord is English and he ate from the mad cow butcher- he'll never know if or when he will come down with mad cow and that he too was sick with mold poisoning in his house. If there is a Creator let Him or Her see to it that landlord gets his karma. He went on holiday to Europe while his mold remedial work was done. For me no cheap Mexican labor who quit when they opened the walls and I left with open walls of mold and lead paint for almost 2 weeks. This at the end of 2 yrs being un-diagnosably sick for 2yrs.Sick for about 4 years total. 2 living there and 2 to recover and detox. Spent thousands on my own recovery and worth every cent. Seek expert environmental doctors who specialize in mold. There is or was no prescription medication at the time ( not sure if there is now even) Only a very long list of vitamens and minerals about $200 worth a month that cured me. Thankfully I found 2 separate experts who gave me that identical list of nutrients that saved my life. Bulldog all the best to you! Ozone generator for killing spores in books, papers, furniture etc. remove yourself and pets and use generator for 2 days at least. Get plants out or throw them away too. If you don't ozone treat belongings I would not keep any of belongings except for clothes you can wash. Drs recommend throwing all shoes, handbags, stuffed animals and furniture away. I threw out most things but couldn't part with books that I was told would have to hermitically treat each if I wanted to keep. Unfortunately with having had this you are more prone to re-exposure illness. Long list of diseases cancer, Lou Gerhigs disease and a long list of other serious life threatening diseases from exposure. People who have lived through this are not joking when they say burn it down and no not bleach it's not enough! Gutting house too may not be enough. Met a man day after I got out of UCLA who had mold filled house he bought - poor guy was rubber roomed and straight jacketed 3 x and no dr believed him. Both of us landed at a friend who had a back room with ozone devices for our bodies that we used to start our healing processes. Hopefully he did as I did and got to drs who understood and saved me. You want to know- its hell being sick with it especially when drs think your mentally ill instead of refusing to understand about mold poisoning, the illnesses themselves are hell while your living in it even to point of temporary insanity ( no joke) and hell detoxing because at points in recovery you can feel even worse than when you where in environment. Severe depression often comes along with detox on top of often severe illness. Really if you had it bad still a hell in a sense because one never knows even after treatment if you will later get cancer or Lou Gerhigs disease or any of the long list of other diseases you are more predisposed to getting after having mold poisoning. Ill try to post list as soon as I can of vitamins and herbs that worked for me . In the mean time dry saunas as often as you can and for as long as you can stand will speed recovery along with no sugar no starches ( as much as possible) sunlight as much as possible - get out completely if not stay our as much as

possible from sick environment. No green foods - ie spirulina chlorella seaweeds , no dried fruit. Sugars and starches feed the mold in your body. Things that help Reishi and Shilajit any herbs that are drying! Chinese medicine people would say you are suffering from excess dampness condition of body! Btw I'm an LMT who has also studied Chinese herbalism for 15 years or more as well as alternative medicine. All the best and hope this helps whoever it needs. See moldgoddess.com good info but skip anti- depressants better off with Rhodiola or SAMe or 5htp but IMHO do Rhodiola because its a drying herb that not only works well as an anti- depressant as the next 2 are it provides more oxygen to brain and body and is a drying herb that will help those with breathing trouble related to mold poisoning asthma etc .

Not taking the piss but I've had mold growing on my bedroom wall since I moved into my new place almost three years ago. I told the landlord when I first moved in and have pictures. I've tried to get rid of it, and blasting it with some bathroom cleaner spray seems to have put it into remission but do yous think, I can sue my letting agents? the bastards deserve it anyway.

I had an apartment for 2 years that had black mold over the entire first floor's ceiling (and in the walls). I knew the entire ceiling suffered from water damage (and lots of discoloration), but it wasn't until after 2 years I realized there was black mold everywhere up there. I got the heck out, asap! I found out the mold was there from a former tenant, who for some reasons took two years to tell me I was living in a house of mold!

The sick thing is, there have been 2 more different tenants since I moved out.

I have lived in a place for quite a while and have had illnesses that doctors could not explain, one after the other and progressively worse.After reading about black mold poisoning and going through the symptoms of intoxication, checking off the majority of them, I am becoming quite concerned.Then I looked up the symptoms in cats and dogs, and check the majority of those symptoms off for my cat and dog.I am actually scared and nearly convinced there is black mold here.

The mold is WORSE than the media makes it! Mold is used in germ warfare! It can give you cancer, MS, Bells Palsy, early on-set Alzheimer's, Lou Gerhigs disease, psychosis, Raynauds, and a host of other horrible illness including toxic enchephalitis which is what happened to me. So BS to whoever said its not as bad as the media makes it ! The CDC and AMA downplay it why? Because it cost insurance companies millions ! and the only Drs who can treat it are neurotoxicologists, neuropsychologists and environmental disease experts! period!

Starts with the headaches and the respiratory problems, then the immune system goes down.

Nasty stuff.

Quoting: Seeker5

Yep and never goes away.You may feel better at times but it always comes back.Lived in a house for almost 10 years that had mold.Knew there was a little bit near bathroom pipes but would spray and clean it away not giving it much thought.Before moving while doing updates find the floors underneath totally covered and behind walls.Once we moved we felt much better but problems remained.My child had sinus problems so bad we seemed to stay at a doctors office.Noticed right away he got much better after moving.I have never recovered from breathing issues,fatigue,etc.

Ok basic pathology 101 All illnesses are viral , bacterial or fungal. Viruses and bacteria they know the most about - fungal the least! And fungals are the most stubborn to cure by far. The only illness ill put as just as difficult to get rid of as mold poisoning is MRSA. I must research Teflex now but is it filled with chemicals??? Because so many who suffer from mold have chemical sensitivity and we will most likely for the rest of our lives so I had to seek other ways of killing it! Like food grade hydrogen peroxide ! Much safer than bleach! Or probably teflex. I'd spray food grade hydrogen peroxide on it and then separately spray colloidal silver on it. But this may not PERMEATE everything which is why I say OZONE generator! The ozone generator was the only thing that makes mold spores inert! And can get in the walls floor etc!